Solitary: The Walking Dead

Chapter Sixty-nine.

Rick?

Iris stands at the back, staying away from everyone and keeping her eye on everything, "We're going to start." Deanna says "Can we wait? There's still people coming. Glenn, Rick." Maggie says "We're going to start. It's already dark. We're going to talk about what happened. Not the fight. Not what precipitated it. We're dealing with that. We're going to talk about one of our constables, Rick Grimes. We're going to talk about how he had a pistol he stole from the armoury, about how he pointed it at people. And we're going to talk about what he said. I was hoping he'd be here." Deanna explains.

"She said he's coming." Michonne says "I'm sure he'll be here. And I'm sure we can work this all out." Carol says, Michonne stands and starts talking but Iris doesn't listen, too focused on the fire they sat around. She looks over to Abraham as he starts talking next to her, "Simply put, there is a vast ocean of shit you people don't know shit about. Rick knows every fine grain of said shit... and then some." The man says, Iris looks over at Deanna, watching the woman, Ignoring everyone again.

Deanna speaks up, bringing Iris back to the world "Before we hear from anyone else, I-- I would like to share something in the spirit of transparency. Father Gabriel came to see me the day before yesterday and he said our new arrivals can't be trusted, that they were dangerous, that they would put themselves before this community. And not one day later, Rick seemed to demonstrate all the things Father Gabriel said. I had hoped Gabriel would be here tonight." "I don't see him here, Deanna. So you're just saying what someone said. Did you tape him?" Jessie says.

"He's not here." Maggie says, "Neither is Rick." Deanna says, "Excuse me." Maggie says before walking away, "you've all got blood on your hands" Iris says, everyone turns and looks at her, "all of you. You can lie but it's there. Everyone here has done something bad. So why are you kicking Rick out for helping someone? Protecting someone, someone you weren't protecting." Iris says glaring at Deanna.

Everyone moves their attention to Rick as he walks into the fire light, a body over his shoulder, he throws the walker onto the floor in front of everyone, making them all flinch back "There wasn't a guard on the gate. It was open." Rick says, "I asked Gabriel to close it." Deanna's son explains "Go." she orders him, "I didn't bring it in. It got inside on its own. They always will-- the dead and the living, because we're in here. And the ones out there...they'll hunt us. They'll find us. They'll try to use us. They'll try to kill us. But we'll kill them. We'll survive. I'll show you how. You know, I was thinking– I was thinking how many of you do I have to kill to save your lives? But I'm not gonna do that. You're gonna change. I'm not sorry for what I said last night." Rick explains.

"I'm sorry for not saying it sooner. You're not ready, but you have to be. Right now, you have to be. Luck runs out." he continues, Iris hears footsteps approaching them, Pete stops and stands in front of them all, Michonne's sword in his hand, "You're not one of us. You're not one of us!" the man yells, Deanna's husband steps in front of him, trying to calm him down "Pete, you don't want to do this." he says, "Get the hell away from me, Reg." Pete says.

Iris pulls out her knives, gripping them tightly in her hands, "Pete, just stop." "Get away from me-" "Reg. Reg." "Not now." "Get away. Get away!" "Now, Pete, stop. Pete–" they fight, Pete shoves Reg away from him, cutting his throat at the same time. Deanna screams as Abraham and Iris lunge at Pete, Iris keeps her knives against the man's neck as Abraham holds him and Michonne takes her sword back, Iris listens to Deanna's cries as she holds her knives to Pete as the man shouts, "Rick? Do it" Deanna says, Iris quickly moves away from Pete and Rick shoots Pete in the head.

Iris stands and looks up when she notices people, Daryl and Aaron standing in front of her with Morgan "Rick?" the man questions. Iris looks to Daryl, his eyes already on her, concern etched on his face as he looks at her injuries. Iris puts her knives back into the sheaths on her belt, looking down at the body on the floor trying to hide her black eye even though it's too late.